Barcelona star suffers injury ahead of Newcastle clash – Huge boost after SJP masterclass

Last Friday’s draw could’ve paired us against Chelsea, but instead we host Barcelona at St James’ Park on the 10th of March, before travelling to the Nou Camp on the 18th of March for the return leg.

The winner of our tie will move on to play either Atletico Madrid or Spurs, whilst the games will allow us to avenge September’s 2-1 defeat back on matchday one of the competition.

And, as things stand, Barcelona will be at an early disadvantage for their second trip of the season to the North East, with a key man already ruled out.

Frenkie De Jong is set to miss up to six weeks of action with a fresh hamstring injury, which will rule him out of both legs of our last 16 tie, and potentially both legs of the quarter-finals should Barcelona progress.

It’s a huge blow to Hansi Flick, as de Jong has been captaining the side when starting, and has grabbed a goal and two assists in his last seven league appearances.

The Dutchman was imperious in the middle of the park when we met back in September, evading our press at will, so whilst we’re without our own midfield maestro in Bruno Guimaraes, we should count ourselves lucky that de Jong won’t be playing in either leg.

The injury may come as a huge blow to 28-year-old personally as well, as he spoke quite fondly of playing in front of the Toon faithful after our first Champions League meeting.

After that game at St James’ Park, de Jong commented “‘The atmosphere was incredible, truly beautiful. They’re true football fans. They react to football moments and showed so much emotion. That was great to see.”

De Jong isn’t the only injury concern that Flick currently has in midfield: the equally fantastic Gavi is also set to miss both legs of the tie as he is still recovering from knee surgery, which is set to rule him out until the end of March.

Former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen will also be absent until the end of April, as he suffered a partial ACL tear back in December.

However, a number of stars who weren’t available the first time will, barring injury, be available for Flick against us. Most notably the best young player in the world in Lamine Yamal, who you would expect will have quite the battle with Lewis Hall across both legs of the tie.